


Shumi Village

by meikahidenori



Category: Final Fantasy 8
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2016-06-27
Packaged: 2018-07-18 16:02:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7321654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meikahidenori/pseuds/meikahidenori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>another old fiction I wanted to share. original Deviant art posting can be found here: http://meikahidenori.deviantart.com/art/Shumi-village-22190593</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shumi Village

Selphie sat up in the dark. She looked over at the two beds that occupied the other two girls and sighed with relief that they were still asleep and weren’t woken up from her muffled scream. She still had re-occurring nightmares about the damage to Trabia garden and sometimes it kept her awake til the early hours of the morning.

She slipped on her boots and snuck out the room quietly and headed past the boys room and creped quietly down the stairs until she made it out into the cold Trabian air. It wasn’t snowing, but it felt as if it would begin anytime soon. The Shumi people had been very hospitable towards them and had given them a gift of friendship and alliance and this gave her a mild attack of the warm and fuzzys.  
The village looked different at night. It was quiet and tranquil and put her mind at ease, even if it was only temporarily. She walked along the small dirt track that graced the village and found herself standing at the lake. The moonlight was dancing along the water and she wished there was someone else up to see it. Her heart jumped into her throat as she saw a silent figure down at the small pier dangling their legs over the edge, and they appeared to be thinking of something. Selphie took a deep breath. Maybe it was a stranger? She hid behind a bush and crept up upon them.

“BOO!” she shouted loudly, frighting the other person so much they toppled into the lake. When they re emerged, Selphie realised who she had spooked.

“What’d you do that for?” Came a deep throated shout from the water. “Gee, can’t a guy mind his own business once in a while?”

Selphie peered over the edge. “Sorry Zell!” she shouted back.

The boy slicked his long wet fringe from his eyes. “Oh, it’s just you Selph. I thought you were Rinoa.”

Selphie laughed. “Why?”

“Because she’s been bugging me since we were at Trabia about Squall and his personal habits. It’s not as if I know any answers, you know I haven’t been friends with him before this trip.”

“I know.” She smiled. “Come on,” she held out her hand, “Can’t have you catching a cold now can we?”

Zell reached up and was gratefully pulled up from the freezing ice cold water of the lake.

He rung out his shirt and jacket and looked at them as if they had stretched a few more inches than he expected them to. Selphie watched his disgusted expression with amusement. In the end, he gave up and resorted to sitting on the pier shirtless.

“I thought you were all sleeping.” He said after a minute’s pause.

“I can’t sleep.” Selphie admitted. “I keep thinking about Trabia.”

Zell gave a little smile, something Selphie hadn’t seen since leaving Trabia garden’s ruins. “It’ll all be ok. We’ll help rebuild it. I can do it personally if you want.”

Selphie let out a giggle. “Yeah, we could use a strong man to lift the concrete.”

Zell’s stare went cold. Obviously he didn’t find the joke funny. “Is that all you guys think of me? Just some dumb brainless twat who can do all the heavy work?”

Selphie realised she had hit a nerve.

“Sorry Zell, I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I just think you would be doing most of the work after all.”

Zell sighed. “Nah, it’s my fault you all think that. I just don’t want everyone prodding me for things like they do Squall. But just once it would be nice to actually be seen as if I have feelings and are more useful than just being a tagging dead weight.”

There was a slight silence.

“Why are you still up?” Selphie asked.

“Huh?” Zell stared out at the lake blankly. Did he really want to say, “Squall talks and swears like a trooper in his sleep and Irvine snores like a pair of Wendigos in hibernation.”? Somehow, he doubted that would go down too well. For a start, Squall could slice him open and leave him for dead, and Irvine could have a serious blow to the ego, plus filling Zell’s body with a few hundred pounds of lead. There was also the other thing that had been nagging at him since Trabia garden, and he wasn’t sure if he was ready to talk about that yet, until he got more answers.

“Zell, I asked you a question.” Selphie leaned in close and gave him another scare.

“Uh...”

“Has it got to do with what Irvine said about the orphanage?”

Damn.

“It has, hasn’t it?”

DAMN.

“And that weird phone call Rinoa saw you talking to your mum?”

DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!!!

“She saw THAT?” Zell blurted out loudly. “Oh, Hyne....” He groaned. If Rinoa knew, everyone else probably would too.

“Um... Yes.” Selphie pressed on, hoping this would give her some sort of answers to his odd behaviour. “She said you were crying on the floor in the middle of the dorm corridors with the phone swinging off the hook and your mum calling your name in panic on the other end.” She looked into his blue ice pooled eyes. “Something upsetting you?”

“Yes.” He said outright, which was not what Selphie was expecting. She was hoping that he’d deny it or something. “But I still have some things that leave huge holes, so it’s not a good sob story. Besides, I’d rather sort it out myself first.”

Selphie rolled her eyes. “Zell, I can read you like a book. So can Rinoa. You can’t keep telling us there’s nothing wrong, you suck at lying.”

Zell gave her a sturdy blank stare. Good ol’ stone faced Dincht was back and Selphie wished he’d just tell her instead of making it difficult.

//It’s a shame.... Your spirit wants to tell her.... The little inner child is screaming... wanna tell her before I do?//

Shut up Ifrit. Zell winced. He broke eye contact with Selphie in a ditch attempt to get her outta his face. It didn’t work. She hugged him from behind, her cold hands resting on his bare sides.

“You’re not going anywhere until you tell me.” She said in his ear.

//Go on kiddo.// Ifrit chuckled huskily. It might help you grow up inside. You do need to do that, otherwise it’s you who gets hurt.  
Zell sighed in defeat. It was two to one after all. His sharp features became deadly cold. “I wasn’t sure about what Irvine said about us all being from an orphanage, so I rang my ma and...”

///The corridors were filled with the hustle and bustle of students. Zell dialled the public phone and called home.

“Hi Ma.”

“Zell? Oh it’s so good to hear from you dear. How have you been?”

“Fine, Ma. Listen, I need to ask you ah.. um... I need to ask you a question.”

Ma laughs on the other end. “You know you can ask me anything you want to dear.”

“Am I adopted?”

There was a pause. “Where did you hear that from dear?”

“So it’s true, isn’t it?”

“Now dear, don’t go jumping to conclusions.” Ma said calmly. “Yes you were. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re my son.”

“So Alice, wasn’t really my little sister?”

“No. Why this sudden interest in where you are from?”

Zell started to get frustrated. “So for the last say 15 years, you’ve lied to me?!”

“It’s not lying dear. I looked after you and Alice. You were both my children...”

Zell looked upset as he slid against the wall to the floor. His Ma was calling him from the other end of the line. “Zell? Are you still there? Come on dear, what’s got you all upset? Zell honey?”

He let the phone hang down beside him and he hugged his knees like a small child. For an hour, he let his Ma yell and call for him on the unhung phone while he became a utter mush of tears.///

Selphie could feel His voice catch up in his throat, so she hugged him tighter. “Who was Alice?” she asked softly.

“Alice was my little sister. She died from a bad virus when I was 6. I thought it was my entire fault, so I forced myself to forget. I was too successful though. I hit my head while falling down the stairs and I had to re-learn everything. I may not remember the orphanage too well, but Irvine made me remember her instead. Besides, you can’t remember everything from when you were 2 years old, unless someone told you about it.”

Selphie thought this theory through. Somewhere in that last sentence, he had made a point, but she wasn’t sure where. Maybe that’s why no one really ever listens to him. His sense of logic was really simple and made so much sense it didn’t make sense coming from him.

Zell shivered. “I’m cold.”

“That’s because you’re still wet.” Selphie laughed. “Come on,” she stood up. “Let’s get back to the inn of everyone’s going to ask us where we went.

Zell nodded. “Just don’t tell anyone else I told you that stuff. They’ll all think I’ve lost it.’

Selphie helped him up and the started to walk back to where they were staying leaving the silvery moonlight to dance along the lake.


End file.
